California officials said Sunday that they have found debris from a small airplane, though there were no signs of any survivors. The discovery come just after an aircraft went missing from radar.
The debris was discovered in an orchard in the city of Bakersfield, which is 115 miles northwest of Los Angeles, at around 7:30 p.m. Saturday, said Kern County Sheriff Commander Shaun Beasley.
"It did not appear to be a survivable crash," Beasley said, although he did not say whether any victims were found or how many people were actually on the plane, according to Reuters.
Air traffic controllers had lost contact with a single-engine Piper PA32 around 4 p.m. as it was flying from Reid Hillview Airport in San Jose to Henderson Executive Airport in Las Vegas, Nev., FAA spokesperson Ian Gregor, said. A meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Hanford had said that it was rainy and cloudy in the area that is south of Bakersfield around the time at which the plane went off radar, according to ABC News.
Beasley could not confirm whether the debris they found was actually from the missing plane, as the plane's tail number has not been uncovered yet.
The small plane had set a mayday call by the pilot before disappearing from radar, Omaha.com reported.
The investigation into the crash is on-going, and not much has been revealed about the passengers. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were set to arrive on Sunday to offer their assistance.
